There has been a trend of game studios involving prospective audiences more actively during the development process in the last few years, with Early Access games, like Subnautica 2, being a prime example of this. Now, it seems as though Ubisoft has finally caught on and is soft launching its own version of an early player feedback system in The Player Council. The Player Council is a new initiative by Ubisoft to solicit player feedback during various stages of game development and to give players insight into the development process.

Players who wish to sign up to The Player Council can do so on playercouncil.gg. Initially, the program is soft launching with four games: Codename Split Point, an online 1v1 PvP turn-based tactical game that is currently in the early concept phase; Codename Rook, a single-player strategy game based on tactical decision-making, planning, and calculation; Riders Republic, the already released MMO extreme sports game; and Atomega, a 2017 first-person arena shooter. For the latter two games, Ubisoft is requesting player feedback for upcoming content. Two more games, Codename Decagon and Codename Harlequin, are planned to be added to the program sometime between the launch and December.

One of the outcomes of the recent Xbox Reset that also resulted in 3,200 job cuts is that Xbox Game Studios cut ties with a handful of its recently acquired game studios. Compulsion Games, the studio behind We Happy Few and South of Midnight, is one of the game studios that became independent again after what has been revealed to be a management buyout.

Following the buyout, Compulsion Games CEO, Guillaume Provost, commented in an interview with GamesBeat that the studio is currently working through the legal work to get publishing rights back for all of its IPs. Provost confirmed that the studio is aiming to be self-sufficient by being selective with which projects the team will tackle.

A number of Mattel's IPs have been transformed into digital games, including Uno and Hot Wheels, but it seems as though the toy company is getting more serious about gaming as a potential revenue stream. In a new announcement, Mattel has confirmed that it is establishing Mattel Game Studios in order to "develop, publish, and operate original interactive experiences inspired by Mattel's portfolio of iconic brands."

Mattel Game Studios will operate across Los Angeles, USA, and Hangzhou, China, and kicks off with 300 employees. Mattel already self-published Masters of the Universe: Legends Unite, a mobile game, in June, and much of its future seems vested in mobile games, but the announcement also makes mention of new content and "original experiences" on Roblox and Fortnite.

It turns out the Injustice game series is a lesson in how concurrent player counts don't necessarily predict a game's commercial success. Despite only drawing a peak concurrent Steam player count of 2,131 players, the 2017 superhero game has sold 9 million units since launch. This was confirmed by the game's co-creator, Ed Boon in a post on Bluesky, where he was responding to a fan trying to settle an argument about whether the Injustice series has been a "flop."

This is significantly higher than the current ~1.1-2 million unit sales estimates for Injustice: Gods Among Us, which topped US sales charts for several months in a row following its launch. Injustice 3 was also leaked to be in active development by a leak in early 2026, indicating that the series has been a financial success. For what it's worth, game sales targets have changed drastically since Gods Among Us launched, with AAA launches now expected to see millions of sales within the first few months of launch in order to be considered a success, and even then, that's not necessarily enough to avoid developer layoffs following high-profile launches.

Payday 2 launch in 2013, but the co-op shooter still regularly brings in over 30,000 concurrent daily players, despite its age. Now, 13 years on, the developer, Overkill, has announced the official launch of the V3 game engine for main Payday 2 branch.

The new Diesel Engine V3 improves the game in a number of ways, but the highlights include moving to a 64-bit architecture, adopting DirectX 11, improving CPU utilization for modern multithreaded CPUs, improving load times and the installed game size, and adding native VR support. Of course, this hasn't come without some trade-offs, one of the most impactful of which is the loss of the native Linux build of the game.

Following a round of layoffs and the apparent cancellation of an in-progress Lord of the Rings MMO, Amazon has officially cancelled active development of both Throne of Liberty and Lost Ark, announcing that it would hand off server management to each game's respective dev team. This is only Amazon's latest move in what was previously revealed to be a shift in strategy away from game development.

This means that Throne of Liberty will be fully in the hands of NCSoft's Western division, FirstSpark Games, and Lost Ark will be handed over to Smilegate. Lost Ark is expected to transition to its new management in early 2027, while Throne of Liberty will move over in Q4 2026, although no specific dates have been set. From a player perspective, there will be changes, but both studios have promised to minimize interruptions.

It seems as though the tide is turning on Souls-like game developers eschewing difficulty and accessibility settings, with Capcom recently confirming granular difficulty settings in Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Following that revelation, Cold Symmetry recently revealed that Mortal Shell 2 would also feature a unique twist on difficulty settings.

Instead of difficulty sliders, Mortal Shell II will effectively allow players to add or remove buffs with in-game special items. A recent Bluesky post from the developer's official account shows off the Slayer Seal, which helps players regain health to make encounters easier, and the Gloombound Flame, which amps up the game's combat difficulty.

In the last year or so, we have covered at least two game industry worker surveys—one from the GDC and the other from Skillsearch—that found that generative AI remains a divisive topic within the industry. A more recent Gamescom Dev Speaker Survey has echoed previous findings, although there is a lot of agreement that AI is changing the game development landscape at some level, regardless of how popular or unpopular it has become.

The survey contained a number of questions about AI usage in games. When asked about which industry development would have the biggest impact in the following three years, AI-assisted development came back as the top response, with 47% of developers voting for that option. The current RAM crisis was a distant second, with only 28% of the votes. "Code and Production" came up as the area where developers saw the most value in generative AI, but 30% stated that they "would like to see as little AI involvement in game development as possible."

Electronic Arts is officially back to private ownership after nearly 36 years in the public markets. If readers recall, in September 2025, EA announced that the company would be going private again under a consortium managed by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners. This private undertaking has been valued at $55 billion, primarily led by Saudi Arabia's PIF. Interestingly, this means that the company's decision-making process will be handled by the consortium instead of public-market investors. This will have a significant impact on individual game development, as the new company management will likely dictate how the funds are spent, alongside the chairman and CEO, Andrew Wilson. He has even promised to continue investing in the next generation of titles boldly, stating the following:

Andrew Wilson, Chairman & CEO of Electronic ArtsWe're entering this next chapter from a position of strength with partners who share our vision and ambition. Together, we'll invest boldly, accelerate innovation, and build the next generation of games and experiences for the hundreds of millions of players and fans who inspire us every day.

When Tides Turn is the name of a new game studio started by Fiona Sperry in order to launch Wreckreation 2, a sequel to the "open-world driving playground" that had more than its fair share of Burnout energy. Wreckreation 2 will be an open-world arcade racing game that hopes to capture that frenetic moment-to-moment energy that Sperry believes are unique to the arcade racing genre. The new studio is taking something of a different approach to game development, with Sperry stating that the studio aims to develop Wreckreation 2 "out in the open".

Fiona SperryRather than disappearing for years and emerging with a finished game, we're going to develop in the open—sharing our progress, listening to the community, and letting players help shape what comes next.

Following Bungie's recent promise of more in-depth PvE gameplay for Marathon later in 2026, and the announcement that Marathon's General Manager, Scott Taylor, was leaving Bungie after a 20-year stint at the studio, it has been revealed in a post on X that Marathon's Game Director will also be stepping away from the project and studio as a whole.

The now-former Marathon Game Director, Joe Ziegler, announced that Friday, July 17, 2026, would be his last day at Bungie. It's currently unclear why Ziegler is leaving his previous position, although the announcement comes not even a month after Sony announced that there would be significant layoffs at the studio. Ziegler will be replaced by Del Chaffe III, who has worked as Assistant Game Director for Marathon since 2024.

After layoffs racked the studio in mid-2025, following the launch of Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, 1047 Games branched off into a Titanfall-inspired movement shooter that would launch into early access as Empulse in late June 2026. Now, three weeks after Empulse hit virtual shelves, the studio has conducted yet another round of layoffs, with news breaking via employees. One employee, Max McCoy, the principal technical sound designer who worked on both Splitgate: Arena Reloaded and Empulse, confirmed the layoffs in a LinkedIn post, stating that "I was caught up in the layoffs at 1047 Games today. It's been rough to see all of the layoffs across the industry, and to have this be my second layoff in under two years is unfortunate." The studio itself has yet to comment on or announce the layoffs publicly.

It's unclear how many employees were caught up in the latest round of 1047 Games layoffs, but it seems as though the launch of Empulse, the studio's latest shooter, has not met expectations. Despite showing promise with positive early reviews, both on Steam and from media, and a development philosophy that seemed to listen to player feedback during the early access period, Empulse peaked at 2,860 concurrent players three days after launch and has not recovered since, with daily peak concurrent players currently sitting at around 1,200-1,400. The original Splitgate, the game that put the studio on the map initially, peaked at 67,724 concurrent players in August 2021, for comparison.

In October 2025, we reported on insider commentary by EA developers who claimed that AI tools had hampered productivity, despite the company having all but mandated the tech for over a year at that point. A survey conducted by Skillsearch in April found that developers thought AI hurt creativity in games. Now, speaking at a recent Game Business Live event, EA's president of enterprise development, Laura Miele, touched on AI tools and their impact on the output at EA, seemingly rebutting the aforementioned claims by developers working at the gaming giant. EA has been using AI for everything from coding to concept art, and even managerial work.

When addressing a question about whether AI tools could lead to shorter game development timelines, Miele said that "perhaps in some parts they will," going on to express that she is excited about the tech, given what she has seen of it. She explains that she's "always wanted to help our studio developers remove friction," and "wanted to be a hero to them." According to her, AI tools have removed "friction from our pipelines and our tools and our workflows," and led to quicker prototyping, "faster creativity, and shorter, faster conversations around creativity and coming to alignment." She attributes this accelerated workflow to a removal of "tedium" from the jobs of artists and developers.